Tag Archives: Phoenix Suns

As a fan of the Indiana Pacers, I knew this day was coming, but I wasn’t ready.

Paul George made it official, he wants out of Indianapolis. He wants to head back home to Southern California and play for the Los Angeles Lakers. Pacers new general manager Kevin Pritchard has a huge issue on his mind. Do they let him play next season, hope he makes the All-NBA team, so they could offer him much more money than any other team, or do they trade him now for some picks and/or another established star?

In 2010, Pritchard lost his job in Portland for a few dumb moves (and drafting Greg Oden over Kevin Durant). I’m sure he assumed a day when he needs to figure out the George problem would come, but probably didn’t think the news of George wanting out of town would leak before the 2017 NBA Draft.

The NBA Draft starts later today and we wanted to wait until the the NBA Finals were over before we posted our mock draft. We then realized that a lot of trades may happen early in the week since we know teams like the Knicks were looking to trade into the draft…so here we are, the day of, posting our 2016 NBA Mock Draft.

A lot can (and will) happen to shuffle the draft tonight. Teams will trade up and down, especially if a prospect falls farther than expected.

I’m smart enough to know that my mock draft will not be 100% correct. Mock drafts are more about gauging where players should go if nothing changes from now until the draft…but chaos is expected. I feel like I have a good feel for the pool of draft-eligible players. I can give insight on who teams ‘should’ pick or possibly reasons why they shouldn’t choose someone.

The NBA trade deadline is Thursday and many teams are looking make some deals. There are a handful of teams that want improve their roster for the playoffs and the rest are basically trying to dump as many assets they can. Those assets are usually expiring contracts, but a few quality players do get moved at the deadline.

Goran Dragic, who won the Most Improved Player award last season (and even got a few MVP votes), looks to be on the move. He made it clear he won’t re-signing with the Phoenix Suns next year. Even though Phoenix is currently holding onto the 8th playoff spot in the West, they can’t afford to let him walk without getting anything in return.

Where will Dragic end up? What kind of deal will Phoenix get in return?

The Suns went into last season as a bottom-of-the-barrel preseason pick. They were able to trade Luis Scola to Indiana for Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee and a first-round pick. That trade helped spark a winning season in Phoenix.

The Suns gave Eric Bledsoe a big contract this offseason. If he plays as well as expected, their back-court duo of Goran Dragic and Bledsoe could be the best in the league. Let’s hope the payday doesn’t mess up his work ethic.

The Suns were only a game out of the 8th spot last season. Will they make the playoffs this season?

We will be posting a team preview for every team up until the start of the regular season.

Now that the NBA season is over, let’s focus on the NBA Draft. I personally think the NBA Draft is the best draft in any major sport. There’s usually more trades, the impact of these rookies is usually felt immediately and it doesn’t go on and on like the NFL Draft.

You will begin to hear a lot of rumors about what’s wrong with these prospects. You rarely hear anything positive until a day or two before the draft. Teams know how to leak information to attempt to hurt a player’s draft stock. It’s all smoke and mirrors at this point.

I try to forge through the piles of trash out there and give you where I think the player will be drafted. I personally wouldn’t draft a few of these players in the lottery, but it’s the NBA and there are a lot of bad General Managers in the league.

I hope you’re doing well in fantasy basketball this season. I’ve been taking chances on guys with big upside and stashing them away. That strategy has worked so far, but I’m still tweaking with my roster, in-between poker hands at 888poker.com. I just keep finding quality guys on the waiver wire.

I advise you to look at every box score, especially bad teams’ box scores. You can find a few gems on bad teams. Players aren’t as highly coveted and they can slip through the cracks. You will find bargains, trust me.

For example, the Milwaukee Bucks have a few players worth a pick up, you’ll find two in this post.

Most of these players are owned in less than 50% of leagues (and some are owned in less than 10%). You should pick these guys up or at least keep a close eye on them.

Fantasy basketball just finished its second week of play. We are starting to figure out which players will get minutes and a few players who will benefit from an early season injury.

I know fantasy basketball isn’t as widely-played as fantasy football and baseball, but it’s a fun game. You have to work the lineups daily like baseball, but need to keep a close eye on how many games a team plays that week.

We look at some of the players who weren’t drafted in most leagues, but are now worth a pickup.

Our list is loaded with guys on bad teams. Yes, a fantasy stud can be on a bad NBA team.